Today Is Transgender Day Of Remembrance

On Wednesday, cities across the nation are observing the 15th International Transgender Day of Remembrance, which mourns the victims of transphobic violence. California's West Hollywood and Oakland, amongst other other major American cities, are marking the day with special events: The LGBTQ rights-supporting Equality House, which right across from the Westboro Baptist Church, painted its walls the colors of the transgender flag. The White House will be observing it this year again for the second time, and Secretary of State John Kerry offered remarks on the day's significance.

As transgender people become visible in the media, from Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox to Carmen Carrera of Ru Paul's Drag Race, the public grows increasingly aware of the transphobia that runs rampant across the country. According to Transgender Europe's Trans Murder Monitoring project, 238 people were murdered across the globe this last year in trans-related hate crimes. 95 of them were in Brazil, 40 in Mexico, and 16 in the United States — and that's still in spite of the push for, or passing of, new, progressive legislation for LGBTQ citizens in all three of those countries.

Don't forget, more "accepted" varieties of transphobia still exist in this country, and across the world. Just two days ago, Melissa McCarthy dropped transgender slurs left and right on an episode of Mike and Molly. A recent survey reveals that discrimination of transgender individuals is incredibly common in modern society: this includes bullying at school; workplace discrimination; and house discrimination.

One week ago, footage emerged of a transgender teen at a Bay Area high school being bullied.

And the fact that people are still afraid of transgender individuals when it comes to bathroom scenarios indicates that fear and intolerance is still alive and well.

People have taken to Twitter to commemorate TDOR through the hashtag #TDoR.

To see if there are any TDOR events in your area, check here.

Images: Getty Images